High voltage charge pumps are needed in a variety of applications. One known prior art architecture is the Dickson charge pump, illustrated schematically FIG. 1, which must be implemented with high voltage components in order to achieve ultra high voltage levels. Such architecture requires extra die area and expensive fabrication costs to implement in a high voltage technology in an integrated circuit.
Accordingly, a need exists for a technique to achieve ultra high DC output voltage levels, higher than the output voltage levels traditionally available from a Dickson charge pump architecture.
A further need exists for a charge pump architecture capable of producing ultra high output voltage levels but implemented with standard low voltage technology components.